Troy Banning

Sports Editor

tbanning@freemanjournal.net

GRIMES — He wears the smallest singlet, but he’s among the Webster City wrestlers with the biggest upside.

The Camron Phetxoumphone era has begun. And it’s off to a rousing start.

Despite a size disadvantage in the 106-pound weight class — Phetxoumphone, pronounced Pet-Sen-Pon, weighed in at just 103 — the 10th-ranked (Class 2A) freshman owned the field at Saturday’s Dallas Center-Grimes Mustang Invite. He joined teammates Drake Doolittle, ranked second at 120, and Caleb Olson, ranked sixth at 195, at the top of the podium.

The three champions spearheaded a fourth-place team effort for WCHS, which tallied 145 points. Ankeny Centennial crowned five champions and rolled to a team-title total of 234, well ahead of runner-up DCG (1701⁄2) and third-place Des Moines East (1541⁄2). Interstate 35 joined WCHS with 145.

The Lynx went 23-21 on the mat with 19 falls. Half of the 14 grapplers in the lineup placed in the top six.

WCHS senior 195-pounder Caleb Olson (top) finishes a takedown during his semifinal match against Interstate 35’s Joey Bregar at Saturday’s DCG Mustang Invite in Grimes. Olson pinned his way through the field to collect gold. DFJ photo/Troy Banning

Phetxoumphone has been around wrestling mats for years, so the prep stage isn’t exactly daunting despite his age. Slick on his feet with an array of moves once he gets his opponents on the mat, he rolled up a pair of pins and then controlled Centennial’s Jackson Helmkamp for a 10-2 major decision rout in the gold-medal bout.

“To come out on top is the best feeling,” Phetxoumphone said. “The final match was tough and I wrestled pretty well, but not to my full potential. There are some things I need to work on in the wrestling room and condition myself for bigger people.”

Doolittle is no stranger to lofty expectations at such a young age and he says his rookie teammate does things the right way.

“He’s a stud,” Doolittle said of Phetxoumphone. “He’s been wrestling in tournaments his whole life and it shows on the mat. He’s aware of things and he knows what he’s doing.”

It was a bit of deja vu for the WCHS three-time state medalist, as he manhandled a pair of ranked foes, the same two he hammered a season ago en route to the tournament title.

Doolittle hit a quick single-leg takedown in his semifinal against No. 8 (3A) Noah Blubaugh of Ankeny Centennial and from there it was a fast turn and fall in one minute.

In the final, Doolittle piled up a 12-2 lead on third-ranked (1A) Casey Baker of Interstate 35 before he turned out the lights for good in 4:59.

Lynx head coach Chad Hisler was impressed with Doolittle’s dominance. But the wrestler himself shrugged it off as just another step forward.

“It doesn’t matter who I wrestle, it’s just another match and another day,” Doolittle, who pushed his carer wins total to 137 and tied WCHS assistant coach Tyler Patten for fourth on the program’s all-time leaderboard, said. “It’s just going out there and competing.”

It was Doolittle’s fourth consecutive DCG Invite title. He went 13-0 with 11 pins, two tech falls and a major decision. Seven of the wins were over ranked opponents and Baker was victimized three times.

Olson matched Doolittle’s dominance with three pins of his own, all via headlocks. In both his semifinal and finals matches, he reversed his opponents to their backs and put the squeeze on for the falls.

Olson led Centennial’s Ethan Frazier, 5-4, when the slap of the mat occurred in the championship round.

“One of my goals was to win a tournament like this and now that I have one, the goal is to get two,” Olson said. “I pulled (the headlocks) out of my back pocket. The last few years I’ve had just one or two moves, but I’ve got a few things up my sleeve that seem to work for now.”

WCHS battled back after a slow start to the day. The Lynx found themselves in the eighth position at the midway point, but a strong finish, keyed by wins on the backside of the brackets, catapulted them up four spots.

DFJ photo/Troy Banning

“We wrestled better than we did Thursday night and showed a lot of improvement,” Hisler said. “The three kids that won did a really good job and wrestled up to their potential.”

Reece Sadler (113) reached the semifinal round and eventually finished fourth for the Lynx. Chase Rattenborg (126) and Daltyn Peck (145) were both fifth, and Brady Auderer (132) placed sixth.

Rattenborg battled back from a first-round loss with three straight pins on the back side. He avenged that one loss as well when he decked Urbandale’s Colby Burright in 1:59 for fifth.

Peck’s lone loss was a 2-1 decision in the quarterfinals. He cranked out two pins and fended off DCG’s Cole Smith for a 5-3 win in the fifth-place bout.

“That’s a really good day for him to get fifth,” Hisler said of Peck. “I know he’s worked really hard in the weight room in the offseason, so it was good to see him step up and wrestle well. Hopefully it gives him confidence moving forward.”

WCHS will travel to Indianola on Thursday where it will tangle with the Indians, DCG and Ballard in dual meets.